Georgia Hall had her ‘Hello World’ moment a year ago at the RICOH Women’s British Open, where she finished tied for third.
Now that the 22-year-old is a full-fledged member of the LPGA Tour, it seems like she is primed for a breakthrough any time.
Hall, from Bournemouth, England (about two hours outside of London) sits a 6-under through two rounds at the LPGA Volvik Championship, just three shots back of the lead held by Nasa Hataoka.
She shot a 2-under-par 70 on Friday and sits tied for sixth.
Hall said her round Friday was steady, but admitted she made a “silly” bogey on the par-4 8th. She had a wedge in her hand for her approach and ended up three-putting. However, she bounced back with a birdie on her back nine and is line for her best ever LPGA Tour finish.
“I believe my long game all year has been really, really good, like probably the best it's ever been. I've missed some cuts, so it's all down to putting,” she explained. “So literally this week I was like ‘okay,‘ and I spent every minute on putting and chipping, so it's worked so far so I'm going to continue to do that.”
Hall admitted she felt she “neglected” her short game at the start of the year, not on purpose, she said, but she had been concentrating on her long game much more. Her putting, she said, is much improved and the scores are coming that much easier. There hasn’t been a change to her putting routine, either, as she’s been using the same mallet-style putter for nearly five years.
Hall turned professional in 2016 and captured a title on the Ladies European Tour. She had four top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour a year ago, including her fine result at the Women’s British Open.
She said she’s starting to feel like how she did last year.
“I started the season quite good in Australia and had a few good events there. Then the last kind of three, four events… my long game has been really good, my results haven't really shown it,” she said. “My putting's let me down big time but now I'm playing better, I feel like I can play like I did last year and hopefully this tournament's proving that I can play well and be up there with the rest.”
Hall played in the GolfSixes event on the European Tour alongside fellow Englishwoman Charley Hull, in an event where both men and women teed it up in competition.
Hall said it was an honor to be invited, and would love to go back again.
“It was kind of one of my favorite moments of the year so far,” she stated.
Playing with a partner got her thinking more about the UL International Crown on the LPGA Tour, coming up in October in South Korea. She’s currently on the England team alongside Hull, and has her fingers crossed that she’ll solidify her spot on the squad.
“I love team events so much,” she said. “I’ll definitely try to play well to confirm my place.”
But while Hall has a big vision on where she wants to get to this year (she also said she’s hoping to crack the top-20 in the Rolex Rankings), she knows it’s going to take a steady performance one week at a time in order to get there.
“It's still kind of the first half of the season and I'm not panicking or anything,” she said. “My game's there, it's just my putting's let me down. I had some good results to start the year… you've just got to be patient and take it as it comes.”
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